Safety issues have utmost priority in the context of consistent illegal gun crime happening in the different states of the USA and around the world. Considering the increased incidents of mass shooting in recent times at vulnerable targets such as educational institutions, health institutions, community centers and theaters, it is a major concern to prevent unauthorized firing of guns and other firearms to ensure the safety of the people present in the area.
In this backdrop, there is a need to address the above mentioned concern and provide a system which can prohibit such instances in the future without prejudicing people's right to own firearms.
Though it is a right of every citizen to own firearms for personal safety, there is a strong need have a system that can help in law enforcement by possessing a robust authentication system to allow the firing of the firearm, and to verify the location of the firearm at any given time to avoid its misuse in a prohibited area. The system needs to have features that can selectively enable and disable the working of a firearm in a specified geographical area.
Below are given some prior art references. U.S. Pat. No. 6,415,542, issued on 9 Jul. 2002, titled, “LOCATION-BASED FIREARM DISCHARGE PREVENTION” describes a firearm, program product and method that collectively utilize an on-board location sensor (e.g., a GPS receiver) and stored location information to selectively inhibit discharge of a firearm based on its current location. The location information identifying one or more prohibited locations is stored in the firearm itself. However, this system does not provide a dynamic method for enabling and disabling of the firearm depending on the real time situation and location and does not verify the identity of the person using the firearm.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,127,482, issued on Mar. 6, 2012, titled, “SAFETY SYSTEM FOR FIREARMS” describes a firearm enabling and disabling electronic system which is configured to work within a predetermined distance only.
None of the known prior art references provide a robust, secure and flexible system and methods for selective enabling and disabling of firearms depending on real time situational demands.